Adults shouldn't play teenagers on tv shows/movies, amirite?

Degrassi is high schoolers played by mid 20s Glee cast was pushing their 30s in highschool. This person must be thinking of legit kids shows such as Zack and Cody bc almost every "highschool" show had actors in their 20s. ESPECIALLY the 90s 2000s

by Anonymous 1 week ago

People have forgotten 90210 where the average age of the cast was 27 but their characters average was 16...

by Anonymous 1 week ago

thats not true. i just looked up the ages. starting off the guys ranged from 17 to 24 girls were 17 to mid 20s also.

by Deereinger 1 week ago

Wasn't the Andrea character, portrayed by Gabrielle Carteris, like someone's aunt or like an undercover police officer on the show?

by Alize52 1 week ago

Eh, I never watched it, but my friends did.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Tom Welling was 24 when he started playing 14-year-old Clark Kent in Smallville

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Man I barely recognised him in Lucifer. I found him oddly familiar and had to Google the actor. He went from looking 14 to looking 50 in like less than two seconds.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Which Degrassi? Next Gen? Most of those kids were born 86-88, making them 13-15 when that version of the show started in 2001, and those original cast members stuck around between 2006-2008, making them 5 to 7 years older, at which point their characters were in college/starting their careers, which makes sense. Maybe in Degrassi Jr. High some of the cast were a little old for Jr high, but they were still 14-16, but by the time Degrassi High ended, they were 19-20, so no more than 1 or 2 years older than their characters.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Greece was full middle aged men playing highschoolers lmfao

by No-Worth 1 week ago

What a strange country.

by Competitive-Bread269 1 week ago

We make fun of anime for over sexualizing high school girls...just don't look at any horror movie from 2000 or earlier.

by RichAccomplished9877 1 week ago

Do you mean Grease?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I said what i said lmao

by No-Worth 1 week ago

You're definitely not wrong.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Greece was also full of middle-aged men playing with people younger than high schoolers.

by Alize52 1 week ago

Degrassi doesn't count because they used actual teen actors. Next Generation aired in 2001 when most of the cast was high school age. Drake for example was 15 during the first season.

by Defiant-Lemon-567 1 week ago

Huh? In degrassi we literally see them grow up on screen

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Even adults get older. Plus make up and clothing helps

by Yschiller 1 week ago

lol who? I've watched the entire series multiple times and the only one that stands out as maybe older is the guy that played Jay, maybe the guy that played Lucas.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Yeah... Degrassi Junior High from the 80s to 90s was literally kids cast as kids. It was part of what set them apart from other shows of that nature. And Next Generation was even more on point about it.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Tbf they said 1990-2010, and glee began in 2009, so they likely are bunching that together with the 2010s

by Anonymous 1 week ago

The Freaks and Geeks cast were actually the age that they played.

by Dibbertthelma 1 week ago

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Because they can't have teens taking their clothes off on camera and having simulated sex. OP I know you're young but cmon .. tf .

by Lomacorkery 1 week ago

Actors on the earliest iterations of Degrassi were young teenagers.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Naw degrassi had actual kids playing kids. Who was in their mid 20s on degrassi? Maybe the guy that played Jay on next generation. And a couple from next class. But the degrassi jr high, high and next generation all looked their age and they changed so much during filming it was obvious they started as kids.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

exactly!

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Yeah teenagers are usually played by actors in their 20s because they still look young and they don't have to abide by the rules of having a minor on set. Minors are assigned a tutor to help them meet certain education requirements and theres strict rules for how long they can work.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I think OP may have just got confused between ages of the characters and ages of actors as apart from Taylor Momson (Jenny) all the actors were in their twenties in the first season of gossip girl (and look it tbh!)

by Infinite_Ad 1 week ago

Looking it up even on the show they sited Gossip Girl the actors were almost all in their 20's.

by Ornryan 1 week ago

They have much more often than not to the point where it's quite notable when it's an actual minor in the role. Generally you don't take on that liability if you don't have to and if the producers aren't trying to get at teenagers. The 14-year-old just doesn't know what he's talking about. Shocking, I know.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Grease was hilarious

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Yes, and its because of labor laws mainly from what I understand.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Is everyone forgetting the ancient looking high schoolers in Grease? 😂

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I'm honestly not sure what OP is talking about, all the main characters in gossip girl apart from Jenny were in their twenties.

by Infinite_Ad 1 week ago

Rewatched the first episode of 7th Heaven a couple weeks ago and literally laughed out loud when the parents mentioned the oldest sons age being 16 because the actor was clearly a 27-year-old man and even Jessica Biel (playing a 14-year-old) HAD to be at least 18.

by Big-Cheesecake 1 week ago

Yeah I am pretty sure Ian Ziering was in his twenties when he played in " Beverly Hills: 90210".

by Adorable-Abalone4074 1 week ago

I remember being shocked as a kid when I saw Hannah montanas brother Jackson, was played by a 30+ year old man

by Nolanjerrold 1 week ago

Since the Beach Blanket movies in the 50's and 60's

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Watch PCU. Jeremy Piven in college. Pretty sure he was around 60 yrs old.

by amir58 1 week ago

Yeah, OP has zero idea what they're talking about. This has been a thing for a long time.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Which Gossip Girl are we referring to? The show that premiered in 2007? Where are you getting that the actors were actually teenagers? Most of the principal cast of "teens" were born in 1984-1987. That puts them firmly in their 20s when the show premiered.

by Status-Narwhal 1 week ago

Haha no, other than Jenny the cast was in their twenties and looked it!

by Infinite_Ad 1 week ago

A good reason why they should be over 18. Certain shows have sexual scenes that no minor should be acting out, especially if people are thinking it's hot and sexy.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I used to read a lot of unsavory fanfic about teenage characters in shows and movies when I myself was a teenager. I have a hard time rewatching some of these because I grew up but the characters did not :')

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Yeah I just looked up all the cast. No one was under 20 on l a show of high schoolers 😂

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I think it was just Taylor Momsen, who was actually 14 when she played Jenny

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Jenny's actress was actually 14-15 when the show started and Nate had a kiss scene with her, it made him super uncomfortable because he was so much older so they ditched the romance aspect between them iirc

by NeighborhoodCreepy97 1 week ago

Yeah I think she was the only one, all the main characters like Blair etc were on their twenties, unsure about Eric

by Infinite_Ad 1 week ago

Yeapp, Blake was 20 and Leighton was 21 when the show aired

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Hence the Mila Kunis problem. Where she told the casting directors she'd be 18 on her birthday, she just didn't say which birthday. That's why Jackie is rarely onscreen during the first couple seasons. The rest of the cast could film the full schedule, but she legally couldn't due to child labor laws. Once she finally turned 18 she became a much more significant part of the cast.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

reasons to use adults: generally more experienced actors can explore more adult themes and stories don't have to worry about your cast changing as they age. don't disrupt the lives of teenagers just to make a TV show don't put teenagers in a position where some executive or director or showrunner has power over them keep teenagers out of the public spotlight reasons to use teenagers: generally will talk and act more like teenagers would talk and act will better look the part overall i think i'd prefer to just use young looking adults

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Euphoria casts older actors because the story lines are too mature to do with actual underage actors. It wouldn't be appropriate. Imo they should've just set it in college, but whatever. Generally speaking it's tough, since younger actors are more vulnerable to abuse.

by Jordancollins 1 week ago

High school is the perfect setting because the students have to stay in school. They don't have money or a means to leave so they are forced to stay around each other and the drama can continue. In college the characters could easily drop out or transfer

by Euphoric-Annual-5166 1 week ago

I was thinking the same thing. I haven't seen Euphoria but have heard enough to know that casting minors in that show would be a bit problematic

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Right. It's also a tv show. It's not supposed to actually mimic reality like OP is saying re:storylines. The cast also doesn't write the show lol

by Anonymous 1 week ago

What's disturbing is that one of the few shows that did use teenagers is skins UK (one of the actors has said we ran so Euphoria can walk, I think she was 14 when she started in the show) I don't recommend watching as an adult as it's kinda creepy but the things they had them do was so inappropriate and many of the actors have since spoken about how it affected them

by Infinite_Ad 1 week ago

Generally speaking it's tough, since younger actors are more vulnerable to abuse. That recent documentary Quiet on Set makes me think it's probably better to have adults playing these roles whenever possible.

by Ornryan 1 week ago

This, all the way. Pretty Little Liars was criticized for that reason. Aria has a relationship with her teacher. The actress, Lucy Hale was around 20 years old at that point while the character was 16. It does not sound like a huge gap, but if you look at a picture of Lucy when she was actually 16, you will notice that it has a huge impact on the way you look at the character Aria. PLL in general has a lot of these issues and I agree that it's not okay at all.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Yeah but that's not the point. The point is that a 20 years old playing a 16 years old gives a different idea of maturity.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

the age doesn't give the maturity but rather how they look. Lucy Hale did look like a teen , Ezra also wasn't that old and I think that's why it wasn't seen as weird because they were more or less around the same age group (teen & young adult, which tend to look pretty close to each other lookswise). Now if Ezra was wayyy older than it would be more blatant the problem

by Anonymous 1 week ago

no, teenagers in real life DO have sex and take drugs. i think you have a point with the normalization, but teens always have and always will act out. having actual child actors act out that behavior would be predatory and abusive, especially sexual behavior. a show like euphoria with actual children would be borderline CSAM.

by Delpha16 1 week ago

It's more like they get adult actors because they WILL put a high school character in romantic or even sexual situations, but it's "okay" because the actor is an adult. American Pie, Wet Hot American Summer, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Porky's? It's like a whole genre of film.

by Proof_Argument580 1 week ago

I'm not surprised about that actor. He is also Danny Masterson's brother. Who is also in scientology. So that definitely didn't help him in not getting sucked in

by Awkward_Employer 1 week ago

Do you want more child actors being exploited or less portrayals of teens on TV?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Finally! We should avoid child actors if an adult can play the role. There are too many exploitation stories already.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

derry girls did such a good job at showing teen girls interested in sex without sexualizing them

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Gabrielle Carteris was 29 when she played a high school sophomore in 90210 in 1990. Luke Perry was 24. So like. This has always been done. Stockard Channing was 34 when she played Frenchie in Grease.

by Flimsy_Use_6879 1 week ago

Stockard Channing played Rizzo…

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia) was 27 and Nicholas Brenden (Xander) was 26 at the start of Buffy.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Stockard Channing played Rizzo.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Oh yeah sorry. I had literally just looked her up, too!

by Flimsy_Use_6879 1 week ago

Sounded 34 too

by Ryankayla 1 week ago

And Taylor war so complicated to work with, her character got very reduced throughout the show

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Watch Quiet on Set and then let me know if you still feel like this

by maggiosheila 1 week ago

Based on all the recent revelations about what goes on with kids in show business I think it should be illegal for children to be professional performers of any kind.

by flavio41 1 week ago

You would be correct. Full time child acting should be illegal.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I'm not arguing against "full time" acting. I mean any professional acting, singing, dancing, or playing the bongos. All of it. If kids have talent and desire they should be allowed to pursue it of course, as amateurs, with other kids, for fun. In the meanwhile any parent or guardian who pushes their kid into professional performing should lose custody and go to jail. Just to keep things fair.

by flavio41 1 week ago

If the adult actor looks like a teenager, I don't see a problem with them playing that role in a show/movie.

by bsmith 1 week ago

Euphoria is a rated r show that's not even meant for people your age to watch. You can't show a 16 year old breast, or penis on a show(like they have in Euphoria except they actors are older, which honestly I think Euphoria could of done without those scenes or at least made the show about college students instead of high-school but it's hbo) Also, almost all shows cast adults to play teens unsure what you are talking about and that's because of child labor laws. Child stars cannot work for more than 4 hours a day(some abuse that obviously)

by Burnicecartwrig 1 week ago

eyes the entirety of disney channel and nickelodeon

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Me too. I'm struggling to think of what shows OP could be talking about, unless it's Disney shows.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

If minors acted in Euphoria instead of adults everyone on set would be arrested.

by Signal-Rough-8120 1 week ago

Actors do not write the shows they are on, so your point about storylines and acting like real teens is moot, your taste in their clothes is a byproduct of 90-00s fashion and would have been chosen by the adult costume designers, teens dont play teens in tv shows for a ton of reasons, and imo very few if any children or teens should even be professional actors, they should be allowed to have a normal childhood and go to school.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Young adults are easier to hire/cast than actual teenagers because they can work longer and aren't in school. Yeah, it looks weird, but it's just Hollywood's way of skating around child labour laws.

by jwindler 1 week ago

Okay Dan Schneider

by Anonymous 1 week ago

You obviously haven't seen Beverly Hills 90210, lol.

by New_Cheesecake4480 1 week ago

When Gossip Girl first aired Blake Lively was 19yo (but almost 20), Penn Bagley was 20, Leighton Meester was 21 and Chace Crawford was 22. When Euphoria first aired Zendaya was 23yo, Maude Apatow, Jacob Elordi and Sydney Sweeney were 21yo. Hunter Schafer was 20. Not a big difference really, and IMO is the other way around. Shows aimed at a YA audience used to have older actors in the 90s and 2000s

by Anonymous 1 week ago

After watching Quiet on Set, I'm for less child actors, not more

by Illustrious-Ask164 1 week ago

This. Children don't exist for our entertainment. I'll take a 20 year old playing a teenager and sleep well knowing they aren't a child actor being abused

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Child labor laws

by Anonymous 1 week ago

In shows like euphoria, teenagers should deffinatly be played by adults.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Hmmm i wonder why they would prefer to have actors over the age of 18 in Euphoria

by Fragrant-Future 1 week ago

You do not know what you are talking about and it shows. There are plenty legal and artistic reasons why Hollywood has been casting adults as teenagers for decades, including the 90's and early 2000's.

by Arvilla90 1 week ago

It's just a lot more efficient and legally safe to film with adults. Kids have limited labor hours and shouldn't be left alone with too many people in Hollywood

by Anonymous 1 week ago

If you are under 18 you can only work so many hours per day and per week, and frankly the average TV show is a LOT more work than most people realize. Thats why I'm always impressed when I see a series based on kids that actually use kids. It means somebody got their head out of their ass and figured out a way to shoot a scene in less than 50 takes. Good job.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Try watching Porky's - it has people in their 30s playing high school teens. It's very distracting.

by Osinskijamarcus 1 week ago

Adults are generally easier to work with. That's also why they get small young-looking teenagers to play pre-teen children.

by Pretty-Ad2875 1 week ago

Hello fellow kids!

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Lex also gives him a truck in season 1. It also means Whitney was dating Lana when he was a junior and she was in middle school lol.

by Standard-You 1 week ago

Oh yeah! I totally forgot about the Lana/Whitney 🤔

by Anonymous 1 week ago

A) There aren't that many teen actors B) There are different rules for underage actors, like how many hours they can work, whether they can work during school hours, etc. Studios don't want to spend more time planning or more more money working around these rules C) Most child/teen actors suck. Like any job, often, the more experience you have, the better you are at it. Look at the quality of acting of the Harry Potter cast from when they were younger compared to when they were older.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

it would be considered CSAM for actual child actors to act out the things that happen in shows like euphoria.

by Delpha16 1 week ago

I remember that feeling when watching the movie American Pie, it looks like a bunch of 30-year-olds doing grown-up soap opera sexy stuff, I couldn't have related to any movie less as a high school student.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I'll never forget when I found out Ralph Macchio was like 25yrs old when he starred in Karate Kid.

by Orion75 1 week ago

I didn't realize till I was probably 20 that's they all look 30 not even 20 I mean damn. Twilight ed looks 30 bell looks 23-25

by Oconnergage 1 week ago

The time frame you're referencing was like.. when most "teen shows" had young adults playing teens lol

by Aggravating-Place929 1 week ago

I'm not going to lecture you on the harmful exploitative nature of child actors, but I am going to mention that it's a thing.

by Antonina94 1 week ago

90-2010s were the worst with 30 yr olds playing teens. Not Another Teen Movie actually made fun of the fact.

by nquigley 1 week ago

OP is 14 and doesn't have a clue about what they're talking about.

by derick15 1 week ago

If you go back to earlier TV, young people were almost always played by young people. The Brady Bunch, Leave it to Beaver, etc. etc

by Anonymous 1 week ago

In the US, there are very strict rules about minors and how long they can film in a day for. This came after literal years of abuse, in all the ways you can think of, by studios. "Teen" shows cast adults because they can legally work longer hours and therefore more filming gets done. Especially given that most of these shows had less than 30 minute run times if you take commercial breaks out. It's simply more time and cost effective, typically, to cast 18+ for these roles.

by Hintzdimitri 1 week ago

And disney shouldn't have had a 63 year old man, portray 28 year skinny boba fett

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Counter argument: the Dan Schneider verse of child abuse tv shows. Realism is nice and all but child stars have bad implications for stuff behind the scenes.

by Trycia27 1 week ago

Teen actors can't legally work the same hours as adults. So shoots need to revolve around the kids schedules. Their appearance can change drastically and with little warning potentially making scenes jarring since not everything is shot in sequence. So that can mean reshoots. Those are the main reasons I can think of for casting older people

by Dense_Poem 1 week ago

It has to do with labor laws and contracts. It's much easier to have a legal adult working full time to fill a roll than a child who needs supervision, home schooling, a parent or legal guardian present for certain things etc.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

They have been doing this since forever. It's horrible for real teenagers because they don't look like those people and develop self-image issues.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Actor's union won't like it. Also you'll find more seasoned and good actors in their 20s, those in their teens are busy with school. Plus the audience is actually mostly adults, and if you cast actual teenagers for teenage roles, the Adults have hazy memory and will think the actors are too young for the roles.

by srussel 1 week ago

Um not sure what shows you're talking about but most of them the actors playing teens are usually 20 something

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Go watch the Fear Street Series - I was so confused

by MastodonMediocre 1 week ago

don't ever watch anime then... LOL it's like i'm a 17yr old kid, kid is jacked up like the rock. Wasn't the cast of 90210 like in their 30's, playing HS kids?

by epurdy 1 week ago

I agree with this completely. I think if teenagers are doing "adult things" on screen then it'll only normalize it in real life.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Crazy how this acting thing works eh?

by sophie04 1 week ago

I don't like it, because it makes people think of high schoolers as quasi adults instead of children

by Joanny25 1 week ago

Wasn't the Asian actress in Malcolm In The Middle whose married one of the brothers in her 30s whilst playing a teen?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

LOL! 99% of the "teen" movies from the 70s and 80s wouldn't exist if they actually used real minors for those things. Seriously ped-y when you look at the plots of those.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

If this how you feel, don't watch Derry Girls. The girls are over 30.

by Lednernolan 1 week ago

Not only was this done all the friggin time in the years you noted, it was actually a joke that was constantly made on 90s comedy. Dawson's Creek and 90210 come to mind

by Historical-Stand 1 week ago

Having a child actor available for many seasons can be hard. Adult actors are committed to their job so it is much easier to manage. Some actors can do the job of playing young people. But I agree... some are just not clicking.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Yeah, I think you're going to have to list the shows you're referring to… as adults have been playing teenagers for several decades..

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Pretty sure on gossip girl and most shows in the 90s they were adults. A lot of young adults live longer- as an actor in an industry obsessed with youth just no. Hire adults. And you can always tell who is really that age? Most ppl can't.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

This isn't unpopular, it's a common complaint I've seen that too many adults are playing teens. The problem is that in a lot of places, there's laws in place to make sure minors (teens) aren't being exploited or overworked. They can only work for x amount of hours per day, plus they still need homework to be done. I wish they'd pick young adults to play teens at least. It's weird seeing some 25 year old playing a 16 year old.

by No-Network-6666 1 week ago

Watch The Blob from 1958. They have Steve McQueen playing the oldest, sweatiest, and roughest-looking teenager of all time. Maybe second to the cast of Grease

by Mantearely 1 week ago

Studios have no choice. Child Labor laws are the reasons.

by marcelodickens 1 week ago

to us old ppl a 20yro and a 14yo all look like they are 14yro... so it's credible to most of the audience ur still young enough to tell the difference between 14yro and 15yro.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Beverly hills 90210 was from 1990-2000 and they literally had 30 year old playing 16

by Broad-Lavishness-677 1 week ago

I agree it's weird when people in their 30s are still playing high schoolers, but I totally understand why a director would want to cast someone in their early 20s. They won't go through puberty half way through the show, they don't need to focus on high school, no need to consult the parents, to name a few reasons.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

It depends on what show you are watching. A lot of characters in 1990-2010 shows where 24+. Also seasons take time and its better for continuity if the actors are not in the phase of most radical change.

by Xgerlach 1 week ago

Actors actually teenagers?? Jason Priestley and Gabrielle Carteris were in their 30s playing teenagers in Beverly Hills: 90210

by Kayli78 1 week ago

Nog on Star Trek Deep Space Nine was played by an actor in his early 30s and I'm glad he was.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Blue Lagoon is why adults need to play teen roles.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Quiet on Set just came out, and it is probably a good example of why it's fine for adults to play teenage characters.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Legitimately, what shows are you thinking of that wasn't on Nick or Disney where teenagers were playing teenagers?

by kevin47 1 week ago

The issue comes from employing minors. It's harder to work with kids, not really because of the kids themselves but because of the systems in place- but at the same time, those laws and regulations protect underage workers and are very important to keep in place.

by Anonymous 1 week ago